About the Project

Although the free jazz movement of the 1960s and ‘70s was much maligned in some jazz circles, its pioneers – brilliant talents like Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, Sun Ra, Albert Ayler, and John Coltrane – are today acknowledged as central to the evolution of jazz as America’s most innovative art form. FIRE MUSIC showcases the architects of a movement whose radical brand of improvisation pushed harmonic and rhythmic boundaries, and produced landmark albums like Coleman’s Free Jazz: A Collective Inspiration and Coltrane’s Ascension. A rich trove of archival footage conjures the 1960s jazz scene along with incisive reflections by critic Gary Giddins and a number of the movement’s key players.

Director’s Statement

Free Jazz has been a vital part of my life since I was 13 years old. It has consistently been an immeasurable source of pleasure and inspiration. I have devoted myself to witnessing as many live performances and collecting as many recordings of the form as is humanly possible. That is why I am always dismayed at the fact that it has never enjoyed more popularity than it already has.

One of the most alluring features of the idiom that has invariably appealed to me, is its wide breadth of artistic expression. From the highly emotive, free blowing mode coming out of New York, championed by pioneers like Ornette Coleman and Albert Ayler, to the more composed, New Music influenced strains of Chicago's AACM, to the space age afro-centric stylings of Sun Ra and his Arkestra (allegedly from the planet Saturn). The common thread always being the heavy emphasis on open improvisation and virtuosic playing. 

The innovative sounds spearheaded by these sonic renegades represents a radical break from anything that had preceded it and stands as some of the most original music of the twentieth century. Critically ignored and virtually unchronicled on film, Free Jazz has always been criminally disregarded by the mainstream media. Ken Burns' otherwise exhaustive 20-hour opus Jazz, barely even mentions it. Fire Music stands as my filmic corrective to this shameful omission. I was compelled to document as many of the original architects of the movement as I could, while they were still with us. Unfortunately, 16 of the artists have passed since shooting commenced, which lends the project a certain degree of gravitas. Fire Music represents my effort to share with the world at large, the infinite beauty of Free Jazz and the story of the great trailblazers who forged it. For their fire will never be extinguished.

– Tom Surgal

Free Jazz in Context

In the late 1950s, after the Abstract Expressionists had taken the art world by storm and the Beats had forever changed the face of literature, a new radical form of Jazz erupted from New York’s Lower East Side. This new music was a far cry from the toe-tapping, post-Bebop sound of the Jazz mainstream popular in the day. This was an angry form of Jazz that mirrored the more turbulent times in which it was being played. The young mavericks who pioneered this movement came to create some of the the most unconventional sounds ever heard. They eschewed every preconceived notion of what music was, abandoning melody, tonality, set time rhythms, the very concept of composition itself, creating new songs spontaneously on the fly.

This coming together of these like-minded artists, iconic figures such as Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, Albert Ayler, Sun Ra, Eric Dolphy and John Coltrane, was one of those remarkable phenomena that rarely occur in the course of history. Like all the groundbreaking artistic movements that had preceded them, the early progenitors of the Free Jazz scene were initially met with skepticism and outright disdain. They were accused of being anti-Jazz, and the music they played was dismissed as being pure noise. Undeterred by their critics, they soldiered on in relative obscurity and in the process created one of the most influential bodies of work of the contemporary age.

Turned away by nightclubs and ignored by the mainstream media, these cutting edge trailblazers were driven to create their own subculture. They self-released their own albums and found unconventional places in which to perform, like coffee houses and lofts, eventually forming their own communally-run venues.

The ’60s was a politically charged era, and no music reflected the tenor of the times better than Free Jazz. The resounding cries of atonal saxophones and the spastic pounding of drums reflected the growing indignation of a youth in revolt.

As the ’70s wound down, America embarked on a new era of conservatism. As Reagan assumed power, a new breed of musician lay claim to the Jazz idiom. These young Turks denigrated the great Free Jazz innovators who had preceded them, and sought instead to champion a revisionist brand of Jazz, what fabled soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy dubbed “Re Bop.”

With the advent of popular Jazz becoming even more mainstream, an already marginalized form became even more pushed to the outer fringe. But Avant-Garde Jazz managed to persevere. As the ’80s progressed, a new development started to occur. The Post-Punk enthusiasts who comprised the whole Alternative Rock Nation discovered kindred souls in the sonic blasters of the Free Jazz scene. The music actually enjoys a larger audience today than it ever has. This is the story of an irrepressible art form that has inspired generations of fans the world over. The originals that bucked convention in order to forge their radical sound must have their story told, for their fire will never be extinguished.

The Team

WRITER / DIRECTOR: TOM SURGAL is known for directing a series of groundbreaking music videos for leading alternative bands like Sonic Youth, Pavement and The Blues Explosion. Tom was initially mentored in filmmaking by Brian DePalma and would go on to work in a wide range of film production jobs, including production design and casting. Tom is also a musician who has performed regularly with Nels Cline (Wilco), Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth), Jim O'Rourke and Mike Watt (Minutemen, The Stooges) and is co-leader of the improvisational ensemble White Out. He is also a curator who has programmed celebrated music series at various downtown New York venues, including an entire month of shows at John Zorn's hallowed performance space The Stone. Tom is recognized as a leading authority on Avant-Garde Jazz and boasts one the world's largest collections of Free Jazz recordings

PRODUCER: DAN BRAUN is an Emmy Award and IDA winning producer and the co-founder and co-president of New York based sales, production and distribution company Submarine Entertainment. 

As a film producer, Mr Braun’s work includes the documentaries Kusama-Infinity, Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict, Burden: The Story of Chris Burden, Diana Kennedy: Nothing Fancy and Fire Music. Braun executive produced documentary series Wild Wild Country, Evil Genius, The Keepers, Pick of the Litter, The Devil Next Door, The Sons of Sam: Descent into Darkness plus feature documentaries Tom Petty Somewhere you Feel Free, Biggie: I Got a Story to Tell, Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President, Citizen Penn, Echo in the Canyon, Gary Winogrand: All Things are Photographable, Bill Wyman: The Quiet One, Joan Jett: Bad Reputation, Pick of the Litter, Kill Your Idols, Blank City, Sunshine Superman, Rude Boy: The Story of Trojan Records, Streetlight Harmonies and co-produced Todd Haynes The Velvet Underground and Bombshell: The Hedy LaMarr Story. 

Braun is both a writer and an editor on the classic horror comic book magazines Creepy & Eerie, which he re-launched and publishes with Dark Horse Comics. Braun won an Eisner Award for his work on The Creepy Archives and won The Ghastly “Normanton” award recognizing an individual for their commitment to carrying on the legacy of horror comics.

SUBMARINE is a hybrid sales, production and distribution company run by twin brothers and co-founders Dan Braun and Josh Braun.

Submarine was founded in 1998 and produces, develops, distributes and sells feature films and documentaries.

Submarine has been involved with the sale of six out of the last ten academy award winning documentaries; Citizenfour, 20 Feet From Stardom, Man on Wire, The Cove and Searching for Sugar Man, and American Factory and has been involved in the sale of hundreds of feature films and documentaries including The Social Dilemma, Boys State, The Velvet Underground, Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry, Rebel Hearts, Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go For It, The Djinn, Final Account, Assassins, Truman and Tennessee, The Truffle Hunters, The Mole Agent, Crip Camp, Apollo 11, One Child Nation, Honeyland, Sea of Shadows, Three Identical Strangers, Pick of the Litter, Life Animated, Echo in the Canyon, Weiner, Iris, Blackfish, Food Inc, Finding Vivian Maier, Best of Enemies, Tiny Furniture, Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work, Muscle Shoals, Meru, Tangerine, Winter’s Bone, Chasing Ice, and The Cave of Forgotten Dreams among many others.

Films produced or executive produced by Submarine include I Called Him Morgan, Peggy Guggenheim Art addict, Burden, Easy Riders Raging Bulls, The Unknown Known, Kusama Infinity, Patrolman P., Page One; Inside the NY Times, Kill Your Idols, Blank City, Sunshine Superman, Recent documentary series include hit Netflix series The Keepers, Evil Genius, Lenox Hill, Emmy award winning Wild Wild Country, The Devil Next Door and The Sons of Sam.

More info can be found at www.submarine.com

PRODUCING TEAM

PRODUCER: JOSEPH WEMPLE is the Chairman / President Emeritus of the Maysles Institute: Center for Documentary Film. A former film editor and director, he directed and produced the short films Addio Leonardo, which aired on Channel 13, and This Is IT with Alan Watts; a News Years Day special for Channel 13, Thoughts of the Artist Upon Leaving The 60’s; and the theatrical feature-length documentary Just Crazy About Horses. Joe has also produced and directed some off, off Broadway plays and founded the Theatre Exchange in San Francisco. Most recently, he has acted as producer on the documentaries The Earth Moves (in post-production) and the recently completed Nobody Was Here.

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: RON MANN is one of Canada's foremost documentary filmmakers. Mann established his international reputation while in his twenties with a series of award-winning theatrical documentaries, including Imagine the Sound (1981), Poetry in Motion (1982), Comic Book Confidential (1988), Twist (1992), and Grass (1999). Ron’s other films include Go Further (2003), Tales of the Rat Fink (2006), Know Your Mushrooms (2008), In the Wake of the Flood (2010), Altman (2014) and Carmine Street Guitars (2018). Ron has also acted as executive producer on the documentaries Brakhage (1998), Examined Life (2008), Mighty Uke (2010), Lunarcy! (2012), Mermaids (2016), I Called Him Morgan (2016), as well as the television series Pure Pwnage (2010).

In 2002, Ron also founded FILMS WE LIKE, a boutique distributor of documentary, independent and international films in Canada. Beginning with Sam Green and Bill Siegel's The Weather Underground (2002), Films We Like has released over 300 films and counting.

EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Peter Afterman, Keith Abrahamsson, Andrés Santo Domingo, John Loggia, Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth), Nels Cline (Wilco), and Josh Braun.

Thurston and Nels are virtual musicologists and two of the most knowledgeable authorities on Avant-Garde Jazz in the world. They are rated 34 and 82 respectively in Rolling Stone's list of "All Time Greatest Guitar Players".